Chapter 6Chapter 6

The Duel for North The Duel for North AmericaAmerica

1608–17631608–1763

France Finds a Foothold in Canada

• What was the impact of French colonization of Canada?

I. France Finds a Foothold in Canada

• France was a latecomer in the scramble for New World real estate:– It was convulsed by foreign wars and domestic

strife during the 1500s.– It was involved in clashes between Roman

Catholics and Protestant Huguenots.– On St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1572, over 10,000

Huguenots―men, women, and children―were butchered in cold blood.

I. France Finds a Foothold in Canada (cont.)

• 1598: Era of the Edict of Nantes:– Issued by the crown, it granted limited toleration

to French Protestants.– France blossomed, led by brilliant ministers and by

King Louis XIV, who reigned for 72 years (1643–1715).

– Fatefully for North America, he took a deep interest in overseas colonies.

I. France Finds a Foothold in Canada (cont.)

• 1608: The permanent beginnings of a French empire (see Map. 6.1) were established at Québec:– Efforts were led by Samuel de Champlain,

“Father of New France.”– He established friendly relationships with Huron

Indian tribes.– He entered into a treaty with the Huron against

the Iroquois tribes of the upper New York area.

Map 6.1 p102

I. France Finds a Foothold in Canada (cont.)

• Government of New France (Canada) finally fell under direct control of the king.– This regime was almost completely autocratic.– The people elected no representative assemblies.– They did not enjoy the right to trial by jury, as in

the English colonies.

I. France Finds a Foothold in Canada (cont.)

• The population of Catholic New France grew slowly:– In the late 1750s, only 60,000 or so whites were in New

France.– Landowning French peasants had little motive to move.– French Huguenots were denied a refuge.– The French government favored its Caribbean islands.

New France Fans Out

• What were the motives and repercussions of French Expansion into North America?

II. New France Fans Out

• New France contained one valuable resource—the beaver:– European fashion-setters valued beaver-pelt

hats.– Colorful coureurs de bois trapped beavers.– They littered the land with scores of place

names: Baton Rouge (red stick), Terre Haute (high land), Des Moines (some monks).

II. New France Fans Out(cont.)

• French voyageurs recruited Indians into the fur business (see Map 6.2): – The Indian fur flotilla that arrived in Montréal in

1693 numbered 400 canoes.– Many of these Indians were decimated by the

white man’s diseases and alcohol.– Mass slaughter of beavers violated many Indians’

religious beliefs and caused ecological damage.

p102

Québec Scene, by Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin, ca. 1699 (detail) The metal cooking pot and the Indians’ clothing and blankets show the Native Americans’ growing reliance on European trade goods.

Map 6.2 p103

II. New France Fans Out(cont.)

• Catholic missionaries (Jesuits) tried to save Indians for Christ and from fur-trappers:– Some suffered torture by Indians.– They had few converts but did play a vital role as

explorers and geographers.– Other explorers sought neither souls nor fur, but

empire to block English and Spanish expansion.

II. New France Fans Out(cont.)

• French explorers:– Antoine Cadillac founded Detroit, “the City of

Straits.”– Robert de La Salle floated down the Mississippi

in 1682 to where it mingles with the Gulf.– He named the interior basin “Louisiana,” after

Louis XIV.– He failed to find the Mississippi delta, landed in

Spanish Texas, and in 1687 was murdered.

II. New France Fans Out(cont.)

• The French planted several fortified posts in what is now Mississippi and Louisiana:– New Orleans was founded in 1718.– The forts in fertile Illinois country (Kaskaskia,

Cahokia, and Vincennes) became the grain garden of France’s North America empire.

The Clash of Empires

• Why was there conflict between France and the American colonies?

• What were the results of the early conflicts?

p105

Chief of the Taensa Indians Receiving La Salle, March 20, 1682, by George Catlin, 1847–1848Driven by the dream of a vast North American empire for France, La Salle spent years exploring theGreat Lakes region and the valleys of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. This scene of his encounter withan Indian chieftain was imaginatively recreated by the nineteenth-century artist George Catlin.

III. The Clash of Empires

• The earliest contests among European powers for control of North America:– In King William’s War (1689–1697) and Queen

Anne’s War (1702–1713) (see Table 6.1), British colonists fought French coureurs de bois.

– Indian allies ravaged Schenectady, New York, and Deerfield, Massachusetts (see Map 6.3).

Table 6.1 p104

III. The Clash of Empires(cont.)

• Peace terms, signed at Utrecht in 1713, revealed how badly France and its Spanish ally had been beaten (see Map. 6.4):– Britain gained French-populated Acadia (which the

British renamed Nova Scotia) as well as Newfoundland and Hudson Bay.

– Losses pinched France’s settlements on the St. Lawrence and thereby sealed their ultimate doom.

Map 6.3 p104

Scenes of the French Wars The arrows indicate French-Indian attacks. Schenectady was burned to the ground in the raid of 1690. At Deerfield, site of one of the New England frontier’s bloodiest confrontations, invaders killed fifty inhabitants and sent more than a hundred others fleeing for their lives into the winter wilderness. The Indian attackers also took over one hundred Deerfield residents captive, including the child Titus King. He later wrote, “Captivity is an awful school for children, when we see how quick they will fall in with the Indian ways. Nothing seems to be more taking [appealing]. In six months’ time they forsake father and mother, forget their own land, refuse to speak their own tongue, and seemingly be wholly swallowed up with the Indians.”

Map 6.4 p105

North America After Two Wars, 1713

III. The Clash of Empires(cont.)

• American colonies then experienced decades of “salutary neglect”—fertile soil for roots of independence.

• British also won limited trading rights in Spanish America, which led to smuggling.

• British captain Robert Jenkins had one ear sliced off by a Spanish official, which led to the War of Jenkins’s Ear in 1739.

Table 6.2 p106

III. The Clash of Empires(cont.)

• The War of Jenkins’s Ear merged with larger War of Austrian Succession in Europe (see Table 6.2), called King George’s War in America:– New Englanders with help from British navy

captured Louisbourg, which commanded the St. Lawrence River (see Map 6.3).

– But was returned to France by the treaty of 1748.– France still clung to its vast holdings.

p106

George Washington Inaugurates War with France

• What were the motivations for colonials like George Washington to initiate another war with France?

• How did this lead to what would be known as the French and Indian War?

IV. George Washington Inaugurates War with France

• The Ohio Valley became the chief bone of contention between the French and British:– For the British, it was a critical area for

westward movement.– The French needed it to link their Canadian

holdings to those of the lower Mississippi Valley.– The British colonists were determined to fight

for their economic security and supremacy.

IV. George Washington Inaugurates War with France (cont.)

• Ohio Valley rivalry increased tensions:– The French erected a chain of forts along the

Ohio River.– Fort Duquesne was at the pivotal point where the

Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers join to form the Ohio River—the later site of Pittsburgh.

– In 1754, the governor of Virginia sent young George Washington to Ohio Country to secure the Virginians’ claim.

IV. George Washington Inaugurates War with France

(cont.)• In this skirmish:

– Washington met some French troops about 40 miles from Fort Duquesne (Map 6.5) and fired.

– French leader was killed and his men retreated.– French returned and surrounded Washington.– Washington, after 10-hour siege, surrendered but

was allowed to march troops away with honor.– In response, the British brutally uprooted French

Acadians and scattered them as far as Louisiana: descendants are “Cajuns.”

Global War and Colonial Disunity

• What was the scale of this particular Franco-Anglo conflict?

• What were the lesson learned by the British and American colonials?

• What is the long-term significance of the Albany Congress?

V. Global War and Colonial Disunity

• First 3 Anglo-French colonial wars started in Europe, but the 4th one started in America:

• The French and Indian War, started by Washington in the Ohio Valley (1754), widened after two years into the Seven Years’ War in America, Europe, the West Indies, Africa, Philippines, and on the ocean.

• The Seven Years’ War was a 7-sea war (see Map 6.6).

Map 6.5 p107

The French and Indian War in North America, 1754–1760

Map 6.6 p108

Global Scale of the Seven Years’ War Among the first of the truly “world wars” of themodern era, the Seven Years’ War sucked in several nations who did battle around the globe.

V. Global War and Colonial Disunity (cont.)

• The crisis demanded concerted action:– In 1754, the British government summoned an

intercolonial congress to met at Albany, N.Y.– Only 7 colonies sent delegates.– The immediate purpose was to control Iroquois

tribes loyal to Britain.– The longer-range goal was to increase colonial

unity and thus bolster common defense against France.

V. Global War and Colonial Disunity (cont.)

• Benjamin Franklin was the leading spirit at the Albany Congress:– He published the famous cartoon “Join, or Die.”– He presented a well-devised but premature

scheme for colonial home rule.– Albany delegates unanimously adopted it.– Individual colonies rejected it, as did the British

government.

p109

V. Global War and Colonial Disunity (cont.)

• Franklin’s scheme (cont.):– To colonists, it did not give enough independence.– To the British, it gave too much.– Franklin observed that everyone agreed on need

for union, but were “distracted” when they tried to agree on details.

Braddock’s Blundering and Its Aftermath

• What was General Braddock’s goal and why did it go awry?

• What was the greater impact of the blunder?

VI. Braddock’s Blundering and Its Aftermath

• Opening clashes of war went badly for British:– General Edward Braddock was sent to Virginia

with a strong detachment of British regulars.– He set out in 1755 with 2,000 men to capture Fort

Duquesne.– On his way he met a smaller French and Indian

army.

VI. Braddock’s Blundering and Its Aftermath (cont.)

• Opening clashes (cont.):– Washington had two horses shot from under him

and four bullets pierced his coat.– Braddock was fatally wounded.– The British were routed and suffered large losses.– Inflamed by easy victory, Indians launched assaults

from Pennsylvania to North Carolina.– Washington with 300 men tried to defend frontier.– The British experienced defeat after defeat.

Map 6.7a p111

North America Before 1754

Pitt’s Palms of Victory

• Describe Prime Minister Pitt and the outcome of his leadership during the Seven Years War.

VII. Pitt’s Palms of Victory

• William Pitt was Britain's superlative leader:– He was known as the “Great Commoner.”– 1757: He became a key leader in the London

government.– He downplayed assaults on the French West

Indies.– He concentrated on the vital Québec-Montréal

area of Canada.– He picked young and energetic military leaders.

VII. Pitt’s Palms of Victory(cont.)

• William Pitt (cont.):– 1758: He dispatched an expedition that took

Louisbourg, the first major British victory.– He sent James Wolfe to take Québec.– Wolfe battled the Marquis de Montcalm’s forces

on the Plains of Abraham outside of Québec.– Both commanders were fatally wounded.– The French were defeated and Québec

surrendered.

p110

VII. Pitt’s Palms of Victory(cont.)

• Battle of Québec (1759) was one of the most significant battles in British and American history:– When Montreal fell in 1760, the French flag

fluttered for the last time in Canada.– The Treaty of Paris in 1763 displaced the French

empire from the North American continent.– The French were able to maintain several small but

valuable sugar islands in the West Indies.

VII. Pitt’s Palms of Victory(cont.)

• France also received two never-to-be-fortified islets in Gulf of St. Lawrence for fishing stations.

• Final blow: France ceded to Spain all of trans-Mississippi Louisiana, including New Orleans (see Map 6.7).

• Great Britain emerged as:– The dominant power in North America– The leading world naval power

Map 6.7b p111

Restless Colonists

• How would the French and Indian War affect the American colonists and their outlook to the future?

VIII. Restless Colonists

• Britain’s colonists emerged with increased confidence in their military strength and skill.– 20,000 colonists were under arms at war’s end.– War shattered the myth of British invincibility.– Displaying the contempt of professional soldiers,

the British refused to recognize any American militia commission above the rank of captain.

VIII. Restless Colonists(cont.)

• British officials were distressed by reluctance of some colonies to support the war wholeheartedly.

• Some colonies, self-centered and alienated by their distance from war, refused to provide troops and money for the conflict.

• Colonies still exhibited strong tendencies toward disunity.

VIII. Restless Colonists(cont.)

• But unity among colonies received some encouragement during the war:– When soldiers and statesmen from different

colonies met, they discovered they were all Americans who spoke the same language and shared common ideals.

– A coherent nation could emerge, but it would not be easy.

War’s Fateful Aftermath

• How did the end of the French and Indian War change the balance of power in Central North America?

• What event would begin the avalanche of colonial resentment toward Britain and why did it happen?

IX. War’s Fateful Aftermath

• Removal of French menace in Canada profoundly affected American attitudes:– In a sense history of the United States began

with the fall of Québec and Montréal.– Spanish and Indian threats were substantially

reduced.– Spanish removal from Florida and French

removal from Canada deprived Indians of potential allies to outset growing British power.

IX. War’s Fateful Aftermath(cont.)

• Pontiac’s uprising by Ottawa Chief Pontiac:– Laid siege to Detroit in 1763 and overran all but

three British posts west of the Appalachians.– Killed some 2,000 soldiers and settlers.– British retaliated swiftly and cruelly with a

primitive version of biological warfare.– Pontiac died in 1769 at hands of a rival chieftain.

• Colonists were now free to cross Appalachian Mountains and take western lands.

p112

Detroit, 1794 A key French outpost from 1701 to 1760, Detroit fell to Britain during the Seven Years’War. The British remained at Detroit even after the American War of Independence, exciting bitterresentment in the infant American Republic (see “The World’s Ugly Duckling,” p. 167).

IX. War’s Fateful Aftermath(cont.)

• But London issued the Proclamation of 1763, which banned settlement beyond the Appalachians (see Map 6.8).– Britain only wanted to avoid another bloody

Indian uprising.

• But angry colonists flouted the proclamation.• The stage was set for conflict:

– The colonists refused to be restrained.– British government was frustrated with colonies.

Map 6.8 p114

p115